Labour MP's controversial campaign to split church from state

Labour MPs have launched a battle to disestablish the Church of England, stripping it of the special status it enjoys in British life.

Ministers are under mounting pressure from senior backbenchers to break the historic link between Church and State.

Demands for the separation increased after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr RowanWilliams, last week insisted that disestablishment was ‘by no means the end of the world’.

Dr Rowan Williams says disestablishment would not be the end of the world

But critics warned this would place the Church on the same footing within the UK as every other religion and denomination.

It would jeopardise the presence of a parish priest in every community, and the right of residents to be married, baptised or have a funeral at their local church, they said.

The Tories said it would be an act of ‘constitutional vandalism’.

David Cairns says the current law is 'absurd'

Downing Street is already drawing up a report on the possibility of repealing the 1701 Act of Settlement, which bans Roman Catholics, or those who marry one, from becoming the monarch.

Former ministers have backed the idea of dismantling the Church’s special position, which it has occupied since the Reformation in 1534, and claim a majority of Labour backbenchers would vote to end it.

David Cairns, a former Roman Catholic priest who quit as a Scottish Office minister two months ago, said scrapping the Act of Settlement could trigger the process.

He said: ‘It is simply untenable in this day and age that should the heir to the throne want to marry a Roman Catholic he would have to renounce his rights. It’s absurd.

‘If the Archbishop himself is raising the prospect of disestablishment why not do something about it? The vast majority of Labour MPs would support disestablishment. I would.’

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘We are examining this area although there are no immediate plans to legislate.’